The Stewards of Babel

[Steward of Babel]

As well as my first post on this board which I discovered last night, it's really nice to find another 40k community, especially for someone just getting into it like myself. Anyhoo, to kick things off, I figured I might as well present my own homemade Space marine Chapter and my namesake, the Stewards of Babel in the Index Astartes fashion. Enjoy!

 

Protectors of the Great Tower

The Stewards of Babel Space Marine Chapter

 

Origins

 

A century or two after the Age of Apostay, an Adeptus Explorator Expedition ventured unto an area of space in the Segmentum Pacificus after the recession of political turmoil in the western half of the Imperium made such efforts possible. The first several systems and planets examined yielded less than promising results for the Imperial prospectors, hopes for sites of ancient, long lost technology or inhabited human worlds needing the divine word of the Emperor quickly dwindled, only to be rekindled towards the end of the expedition. One of the last planets to be rediscovered, a world called Babel by its human inhabitants seemed to bring promise of making all the hopes of the Explorators come true.

On the largest continent of this world, like a weathered metallic stump sticking out over the horizon and into the sky was a massive tower, supposedly constructed during the dark age of technology. At nearly forty miles high, this monumental structure boggled the minds of everyone in the expedition and made the tech adepts within either faint, drool, or fall to their knees thanking the Machine God for such a thing. The natives were quick to warn them that the tower was supposedly cursed, that none who go in never came out. Paying little heed to the warning, the Explorators went inside leaving a comm. Crew outside to help map the structure.

The

[Orkdung]

Welcome to the B&C

 

Very nice, I get a Tolkienesque feel to the story.

 

Anyhow, thank goodness they werent name Cerulean Templars, as PsychosisPC uses the Cerulean name too.

[Steward of Babel]

Thanks for the welcome, and thanks for the comment, and just one question:

 

We all know of the threats assailing the Imperium fom the Ultima Segmentum, Segmentum Obsurus, and even Segmentum Solar to an extent, but what's in Segmentum Pacificus that threatens the Imperium? I know Orks are everywhere, and I hear that there might be Necron Tomb Worlds in the Halo Stars, anythings else the Stewards of Babel need concern themselves with?

[Orkdung]

- Orks

- Necrons

- Hrud

- Mutant/Heretical Colonies

[Iron Hunter]

Welcome again, i myself have only been on here a few weeks (and into the hobby only a bit longer) and i must say im very impressed by your first effort. Its awesome. I especially like the way your worded the traits into the organisation, thats was a nice touch. The only thing i have a bit of concern with is the size of the tower, which is more just a "what do they do with all that room?" concern than anything else.

And the other thing i was wondering is, you wouldnt have happened to have read a book called 'antrax' by terry brooks would you?

[Steward of Babel]

I really have no idea what they would do with all that room, but I imagine they would put it to good use. At least I didn't put in the rites of initiation bit, I was thinking that prospective neophytes would prove thier worth to the chapter by having to scale the tower without using any high speed tranist...Lotsa lotsa stairs...

 

On the book subject, no I haven't hread of this, Antrax, what's it about?

[Iron Hunter]

Lol you would imagine so, coz they've got a damn large amount of room to use. Yeah if you could give some info on the many uses of this amount of room, it'll help justify its immense size.

 

The only reason i asked if you'd read the book is because it has the discovery of an island which has a tower at its centre that holds many secret technolgies from the past and has many defences systems in place (with the locals believing the place is 'cursed') and a group of explorers has to penetrate this tower to find its secrets within, kinda similar to your fluff.I was just curious as to wether you based it on the book, but obviously if you havent heard of it id say not! :D

[Steward of Babel]

I hadn't really put much thought into exactly how the tower itself was used, but I had a pretty good general idea. I mean, the Imperial Fist's Phalanx was about the size of a small moon, no doubt larger than Babel's Tower and I haven't seen much fluff that explains how that Chapter uses that much room. I got the idea for the tower from the playstation game, xenogears which also features an ancient, really high tower.

 

The tower itself is close to 40 miles high (200,000 feet), close to 10 miles wide at the base (50,000 feet), thinning out to around 5 miles wide as one goes up and to the top (25,000 feet). The idea I had about it's usage was, as mentioned in my IA "article" was..

 

The lowest levels of the tower (The first few miles or so) and the ruins surrounding the tower compose the planet's capital city, uncounted millions live within and around, the standard of living going up as your elevation does. Not only does this gargantuan area hold living areas, but massive commericial and civic areas as well. The planet's government dwells at the highest part of this "low" area before the tower gives way to it's middle sections.

 

The central areas house the enormous factory and manufacturing areas. Thousands of adeptus mechanicus, local workers, and even some of the Stewards of Babel's techmaines can be found here. Such is the scale of this facility,(The middle miles of the tower) that Babel tower alone can supply all of the planet's needs which includes the Space Marines, and then some. Even this usage is not using the tower's facilties to it's fullest capacity or capabilites.

 

The space marines of the Stewards of Babel Chapter utililize most of the remaining heights of the tower, the lower parts of which contain immense hangars which can hold a few Battle Barges at least, only a couple of these are used with the rest being rented out to anyone loyal to the Emperor. The actual fortress monastery occupy the absolute highest levels of the tower with each company having a set of levels.

 

Other places throughout the tower are heavilly fortified with gun emplacements and the like.

 

That's about all I can come up with at the moment. I have a few fluff ideas concerning a few prominent space marines of the chapter, I'll post those later.

[Barret]

I like it! It's quite original, and the biblical referance is well done, too. The vague hints at the possibility of being Iron Warriors geneseed is ace!

 

I gathered from the fluff that you're using the Traits Scions of Mars and Honour Your Wargear. That's a Notable Divergence, so what Drawback are you using? I couldn't tell from your fluff, although Eye To Eye would be the obvious guess. ;)

 

As for the size of the tower, ever heard of The Fang, the Space Wolves' fortress-monestary? It's a vastly huge mountain that actually reaches up into the upper levels of Fenris' atmosphere, so I don't think that the size of the tower you've described is much of a problem, except for the height... 40 miles... Keep in mind that Mount Everest is only seven miles high, and even Mount Olympus on Mars, the tallest geological formation in the solar system, is only thirteen miles high.

 

At this point, I was going to say that that height might be a bit much, but then I did some research and some calculations, and I'd say that that's actually fine. The height of Earth's atmosphere is approximately 66 miles/110 kilometers, for reference.

 

The pyramidal shape of the tower puts me in mind of the Mayan pyramids...and Necrons...

 

As for the Chapter's appearance, do you have a particular theme in mind? Are you just going to go for the Codex cape-wearing, chainsword-wielding look? The association with Babel puts me in mind of the ancient city-states in Sumer and Mesopotamia, personally, especially since they were the first ones to build big ziggurauts. That's a fairly untapped era of history, as far as 40k goes, perhaps looking to some of that for inspiration and imagery?

 

Cheers, good work. Hope to see more of this!

 

 

-edit-

 

As for testing Scouts by makin' 'em run up the whole tower... That's just mean! ;)

[Steward of Babel]

Once again, thank you for all your comments.

 

The pyramidal shape of the tower puts me in mind of the Mayan pyramids...and Necrons...

The I came up with a bit of a story on how the first chapter master became interred within a dreadnought after a scuffle with the Necrons. Apparently some of Babel's most ancient architecture was inspired by some ruins found in some nearby systems... on dead worlds.

 

As for the Chapter's appearance, do you have a particular theme in mind? Are you just going to go for the Codex cape-wearing, chainsword-wielding look?

 

Considering the Chapter's preference fo ranged weapons, there aren't too many assault squads and not too many marines use a chainsword or other close combat weapons, instead keeping a knife ready for close encounters. In terms of appearence, I haven't really thought too much of a theme of sorts. Techmarines are given special appreciation since many marines go to tain on Mars to learn to better use and understand the technology within their home.

 

The association with Babel puts me in mind of the ancient city-states in Sumer and Mesopotamia, personally, especially since they were the first ones to build big ziggurauts. That's a fairly untapped era of history, as far as 40k goes, perhaps looking to some of that for inspiration and imagery?

Not really believe it or not. The whole idea came from a part of the Playstation game called Xenogears where there is an incredibly ancient tower which was part of a enormous spacecraft. However note that the tower of Babel Fortress Monastery is not a piece of a spacecraft. I will look into ancient Babelonian stuff for inspiration and imagery thought.

 

I gathered from the fluff that you're using the Traits Scions of Mars and Honour Your Wargear. That's a Notable Divergence, so what Drawback are you using? I couldn't tell from your fluff, although Eye To Eye would be the obvious guess.

 

You nailed it!

[Steward of Babel]

I came up with a bit of a story on how the first chapter master became interred within a dreadnought after a scuffle with the Necrons. Apparently some of Babel's most ancient architecture was inspired by some ruins found in some nearby systems... on dead worlds.

 

..And here it is:

 

Marius Morgan, First Chapter Master and first Dreadnought of the Stewards of Babel

 

As the first chapter master of the Stewards of Babel, Marius Morgan was instrumental in in the chapter's early development. After the chapter's conquest of the tower half a century after thier landing on Babel, he spearheaded a full scale investigation of the towe to figure out exactly what it is he and the chapter claimed for the Emperor, something the Adeptus Mechanicus greatly appreciated though it would take another fifty years to do. Morgan was also key in development of the chapter's tactical and combat doctrine, first being shaped by years of having to deal with the great tower's defenses and further refined by random ork incursions, heretic purgings and even the occasional Hrud cleanising. He would meet his demise at the hands of something even more dangerous and sinister.

 

The Halo Stars nearest to the Babel contained mosty dead worlds and planets of almost little value to the Imperium, however, this did not stop the Explorators from venturing into this region nonetheless. People not returning from the Halo stars is not at all unusual, as a place so far from the guiding light of the Astronomican is notoriously easy to get lost in, no matter how stable the space. However when these disappearences couple with repeated mysterious attacks and survivors raving like lunatics about the walking dead throwing glowing green death before vanishing when all is dead, can only raise interest in an investigation.

 

After some deliberation, Marius Morgan decided to launch his own expedition into the neaby Halo stars, taking the first and second companies of the Stewards of Babel set out to unearth what was behind these attacks. At this point the chapter had recently celebrated it's 200th Anniversary. Upon settling down on the last known location of an Adeptus Explorator Expedition, the Chapter set upon ruins whose shape bore a slight resemblance to the Great Tower itself despite being totally alien. Scouts went in to investigate, only to run out half an hour later firing defensive shots before being cut to ribbons by none other than Necron Gauss Flayers.

 

Within moments both companies were set upon by silver clad skeletons raining green death upon them. It was clear that while the Space Marines could not allow these heretical monstrosities to live. Even if they were to escape, they would only have to face them again. Morgan resolved to destroy these abominations to remove thier stain on Imperial space. Taking cover, the devastators unleashed thier firey death upon the Necrons, only to see half of thier kills rise and continue dropping more Astartes. It soon became clear that the Space Marines could not win this fight, and Morgan ordered a withdrawl to the Battle Barge.

 

The Stewards of Babel fought a fighting retreat, selling thier lives dearly en-route to the battle barge. Out of the two hundred marines that landed on that desolate rock, seventy lost thier lives, Morgan nearly among them. The last one to set foot on the last drop-ship, Morgan made sure that all his brothers got aboard safely, mere moments before being perforated by gauss flayer fire. His last words before he lost conciousness were an order to launch cyclonic torpedoes to destroy the planet. This order was carried out as soon as the Battle Barge recieved word.

 

The Chapter apothecaries did all they could for Morgan, but the Necrons were accurate and all that could be done was put off the inevitable. Once back home on Babel, it was decided by the survivors and the ranking officers of the Chapter that Marius Morgan be the first of the Stewards of Babel to be interred within a sacred Dreadnought. Since that time, Morgan had wreaked his terible vengeance upon the necrons who wounded him so badly and defended his Fortress Monastery and made war upon other enemies of man. He slumbers now, like most dreadnoughts, waiting to be called to war once more.

[Librarian- Melechor]

Why did you raise this topic eh? Anyway the story sounds cool, the chapter master being important but bad, and i really like them finding a tower full of necrons that was similar to theirs. A nice ending also. Good job :P